In keeping with their motto, “Let’s build something together,” Lowe’s has awarded Lake Local Schools a pair of grants totaling $54,800 to help the district rebuild in the aftermath of the June 6 tornado.

In addition, about 80 volunteers from four local Lowe’s stores are stepping up to lend their time and talents in a variety of projects to get the schools ready for the coming school year.

A $50,000 grant, awarded through the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, will be used to help fund the construction of a multi-purpose room that will be used as a temporary cafeteria for the middle school until the new high school is completed, according to Christie McPherson, Lake Elementary principal.

A $4,800 grant, awarded through the Lowe’s Heroes grant program, will go toward replacing mulch and gravel around the elementary school playground.

“From the very beginning, the folks at Lowe’s reached out to help us,” McPherson said, adding that it was Darcy Mueller, manager of the Rossford Lowe’s who suggested the district may be eligible for grant awards through the home improvement store’s various corporate citizenship programs.

“She’s been so helpful – we have a `let’s try this together” kind of thing,” McPherson said of Mueller. “She has spearheaded the efforts and gets in there in the trenches with the volunteers.”

The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) wants parents to know that they are not alone if they are uncertain about bus service in the Toledo Public School District when school starts on August 26.

To help reduce a multi-million dollar budget deficit, the Toledo Board of Education reduced its transit service to state-mandated minimums, including the elimination of bus transportation for all high school students and any student in grades K-8 who lives less than two miles from the school they attend.

“TARTA plans to have additional buses available at key locations throughout the city that can be pressed into service, when it detects heavy usage on a given fixed-line route,” said James K. Gee, TARTA’s general manager. “With the radical change to its busing policy instituted by Toledo Public Schools, TARTA is not sure exactly what to expect during the initial days of this school year.”

The Toledo Public School System (TPS) will pay for transportation on TARTA for those who qualify in grades K-8, and will issue special passes.

Previously, TPS had paid TARTA for service during school hours at no cost to students, and had provided some yellow bus service. TARTA also previously operated special routes with buses picking up and dropping off students at school.

Visitors to the Sandusky County Fair Thursday, Aug. 26 are likely to run into Mark, Tom or Bud. These guys are not your distant relatives or long-lost friends – though they’ll likely be at the fair too.

Mark, Tom and Bud are few of the eight Clydesdale draft horses that will be pulling the Budweiser beer wagon from 1 to 4 p.m.

Through the efforts of fair board directors and sponsorship by Maple City Ice - the area’s Anheuser-Busch distributor - three customized 50-foot semis will arrive at the fairgrounds Thursday morning. On board will be the Budweiser Clydesdales, their red, white and gold hitch wagon, handlers, grooms - and yes - even a Dalmatian. Upon their arrival, the horses, gear and wagon will be unloaded. Each of the eight horses will have their 130-pound harness placed on them, and be hitched - one at a time - to the show wagon. According to John Hipp, of Maple City Ice, watching the handlers and grooms prepare and harness the horses is a show in itself. After being harnessed and hitched, the team will be driven through the fairgrounds and will be available for fairgoers to see first-hand. Maple City Ice has sponsored the Budweiser Clydesdales in their sales territory in past years, but Hipp was quick to point out, the hitch team has never visited the Fremont area before. Hipp added, Thursday’s visit to Fremont will be the only one in Northwest Ohio, other than making an appearance Saturday at Put-in-Bay.

Fair director Martin Jay says this is an exciting event for the county fair, and hopes it will be a big hit. While public rides on the wagon will not be offered, this will be a perfect opportunity and a rare happening to see the proud and prestigious Budweiser Clydesdales.

The 45th German-American Festival will be held Aug. 27 to 29 at Oak Shade Grove, 3624 Seaman Rd., Oregon, just a half mile east of Coy Road.

The festival was originally organized to promote and enhance German and Swiss cultures and to generate revenue to support the German and Swiss cultural center in Oregon as well as a wide variety of scholarship, athletic and other philanthropic programs in the area. Over the years, it has emerged as the oldest and largest ethnic festival in the Toledo area.

This year, festival organizers are planning for upward from 25,000 paid attendees, who are expected to consume some 660 smoked “Old World”-style frankfurters, 9,500 various bratwurst, 500 bratwurst patties, 5,000 smoked sausages and 500 Käsewurst (new in 2008). They’ll likely accompany them with about 275 gallons of sauerkraut, two tons of handmade German potato salad and 50,000 handmade potato pancakes, and wash it all down with some 650 barrels and cases of domestic and imported beers, 50 cases of German wines, 7,400 bottles of soda pop and 4,000 bottles of water.

Yum! But that’s only part of the festival’s appeal. Other festival highlights include:

To commemorate 150 years of service to youth and elderly in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, Lutheran Homes Society (LHS) held a weekend of festivities Aug. 5-7.

The observance, which attracted more than 3,000 people, culminated with a Festival Celebration on Saturday.

The anniversary festivities began with the organization’s 150th Annual Meeting of Member Congregations on Aug. 5 at the Stranahan Theater and Great Hall. The event included dinner, special recognitions and remarks by judicatory, government and social ministry representatives, a business meeting and the annual report by LHS President/CEO David Roberts.

A worship service followed, featuring the inaugural presentation of the hymn “Gratitude,” which was commissioned in honor of the 150th Anniversary by the LHS Board of Directors and sung by the Zoar Lutheran Church Choir. The evening concluded with a presentation by Rev. Gerald Labuhn, Executive Director Emeritus and Archivist, who has served the Society in various capacities for more than 50 years.

Weekend festivities also included a celebration on the Society’s Lutheran Home at Toledo campus at the corner of Wheeling and Seaman Streets. A concert on the lawn Friday evening featured The Deutschmeister German Band, The Choraliers and the Commanders of Harmony. A reunion of “orphans” of the former Lutheran Orphans’ Home was held, with some of the former residents leading guided tours of the orphanage building that still stands at 2411 Seaman St.